Comment Archives: Stories
Re: “Critics Blast U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag for Berkeley Patients Group Harassment”
We need a resolution from CA democrat party to remove haag, no doubt this is a coordinate effort of many us attny but removing haag a good start point.
Re: “CEQA Reform Bill Is Too Modest”
We used CEQA the way it was designed to be used. Any project that even might have an impact on the environment must undergo some kind of environmental review. Is that even controversial? With the Bicycle Plan, obviously if you take away traffic lanes and street parking on busy city streets, you might make traffic worse, right? Of course the city should have done that review before they began implementing the ambitious Bicycle Plan, and they knew it. They just thought they could get away with it. Now that they've done an EIR on the Bicycle Plan, it tells us that yes the Bicycle Plan is going to make traffic worse for everyone but cyclists, including delaying a number of Muni lines.
Re: “CEQA Reform Bill Is Too Modest”
Just curious, are you the same Rob Anderson who used CEQA to stymie bicycle improvements in SF for years on the grounds that they would hurt the environment?
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Last Friday at lunch, 20th St btwn San Pablo and Telegraph: 8 placards out of 24 cars parked, or 3 times what you would expect.
Today at lunch on Harrison btwn 19th and 18th: 11 of the 18 cars, or 6 times the norm.
Enforcement on these two blocks could have potentially earned the city up to $28,000!!! Why isn't enforcement a top priority??? It's a win-win: a cash cow for the city, and it makes the city more accessible to the truly disabled.
Re: “It's Time for the Union Fighting to Stop”
Soooooo Mr. Jay Youngdahl, I understand your cousin is Jon Youngdahl, the Executive Director of SEIU California State Council - their chief lobbyist! There goes whatever credibility you had as a journalist... And to think, I used to enjoy East Bay Express...
Re: “It's Time for the Union Fighting to Stop”
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Re: “It's Time for the Union Fighting to Stop”
NUHW suporters: Please take note of the astute conclusions of author Jay Youngdahl: "The argument that the workers were too scared to vote for NUHW-CNA was condescending and paternalistic when made by NUHW supporters to explain their 2010 defeat. And one cannot credibly claim that, with the backing and money of the militant and committed this time around, Kaiser workers were again mousy and scared." Because that is exactly what you are continuing to do. Please stop insulting the workers that you claim to care so much about--if you don't respect the folks you want to represent, you probably shouldn't be the ones representing them...
Re: “Updated: Retiring Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan Said to Have 'Serious Medical Condition'”
National Institute of Justice: ~ Five Things Law Enforcement Executives Can Do To Make A Difference. http://nij.gov/five-things
DoD study on random polygraphs for personnel. http://t.co/Tr7uafTd
"the polygraph is the single most effective tool for finding information people were trying to hide." - DoD, NSA
Make policy that polygraphs for all new hires expire every 2-5yrs. http://shar.es/epfm2
Top Baltimore jail executives to be polygraphed following gang indictment. http://shar.es/lmevh
California laws strengthened wall of silence around officers. http://shar.es/lITUZ
The California Peace Officers Bill of Rights needs to be reviewed and revised. Especially section 3007.
The honest, brave police officers with integrity deserve more.
Let's get this done.
Never give up folks. Never give in. For the good of the collective whole.
RANDOM. ROUTINE.
Break the code. Break the culture.
And Walk the Talk.
Re: “Updated: Retiring Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan Said to Have 'Serious Medical Condition'”
He has a right to his medical privacy. We should respect that right even if we are dying to know what it is.
Re: “CEQA Reform Bill Is Too Modest”
Unconvincing account of CEQA "reform." You put "enough parking" and "too much traffic" in quotes, but who exactly are you quoting? And please cite some specific lawsuits over aesthetics and some of the other so-called abuses of CEQA. "Forward thinking" requires that cities all morph into something like Manhattan? You don't seem to understand that most people---especially people with families---don't want to live in your trendy, "transit oriented" urban environment. They accept long commutes to live in the suburbs.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Helen Connolly -
I do not like the idea of putting personal info on the placard, and the placards go with the person, not the vehicle. If you want the vehicle to be permanently allowed to park in disabled parking spots get a disabled license plate.
How they do it here in Oregon is there are two types of placards... one is the general disabled placard, the other is specifically for those in wheelchairs etc that require clearance on the side for a ramp or lift or to be able to load the person into their chair at the car door. They are slightly different in color. I have one of the latter.
Signs at disabled spots are either the regular type or specifically for wheelchair type placards. Even with a regular disabled placard you will get a severe fine (over $1000 as I recall) if found in a wheelchair only spot. Fine for abusing a regular disabled placard spot is punished with a fine around $500.
The placards show the date of expiration (which matches the expiration of their driver's license or ID card) with the ID/DL number written in large black marker on the placard.
The alternatives are a disabled license plate for the vehicle or just using paratransit services from local mass transit. I use mass transit when I can, and paratransit services most other times, but also have a manual folding wheelchair to put in a friend's car if we are going somewhere so the license plate would do me no good.
General rule is if the parking space, disabled or not, has a 2 hour or longer maximum duration those with placards can park for unlimited time, free if there are meters. If there is a shorter limit the vehicles with disabled placards in regular spots are limited to the same time as anyone else... there is never a time limit for actual marked disabled parking spots.
I have not seen wholesale violations like the article refers to up here, but maybe that is just a factor of the much lower population density here in Salem, the capitol city. I believe Portland has more issues with such, but again even going up to Portland I have never been unable to find a disabled parking spot.
What gets me is this:
If I pull up to a place and there is a disabled spot with a non-disabled spot close by, I will use the non-disabled spot if it is workable for me. This leaves the limited number of disabled spots available for other disabled customers.
The red faced ragers I have encountered who are outraged that I 'stole' a parking place they could have used. Truly amazing. I would point to a number of open spots less than 100 feet away which, not being disabled, they should easily be able to traverse. The laziness of people is astounding to me. They will burn half a tank of gas circling a block waiting for the spot right in front of where they are going to open up... when within a block or two there are huge parking structures that are free to park in and which is are connected to sky bridges between several of the large malls downtown. Truly amazing to me.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Vince Rubino -
"Driving is not a human right."
But access is a human right.
I realize folks like you wish that disabled folks like me would get shipped to a desert island to sit there until we die.
Sorry to disappoint you, but that ain't gonna happen if I, or any number of disabled citizens, have anything to say about it.
The healthy and non-disabled can be so narcissistic and petty. I wonder if they could even make it through one of MY days. Whining crybabies if you ask me. It is despicable.
Re: “It's Time for the Union Fighting to Stop”
When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. Unions destroyed the auto industry, have bankrupted local and state governments, and now they're working on the federal government.
Re: “The Cry of Amazon.com”
End result more taxes and fewer options for citizens trying to weather a stressful economic situation.
Re: “Breaking News: San Jose Dispensary Landlords Threatened with 40 Years in Prison as Feds' Marijuana Crackdown Continues”
Going after San Jose will send the Vietnamese gangs into action. I don't think this was too wise, even with the billions of bullets that DHS recently purchased.
Re: “Frazier to Reexamine Police Misconduct”
As a retired OPD lieutenant, it hurts me to see Sergeant Gonzales dragged through the mud and characterized as a "lightening rod" for critics of OPD. It is true that he is deeply admired and respected throughout all ranks of the OPD. However, it isn't because he has been involved in multiple shootings. It is because he is a fine person who is also a courageous, highly skilled and professional cop. He represents what is "best" about OPD - not what is "wrong" with OPD. Too bad that his career hasn't been captured on video - if it had, you would be holding him out as an ideal for other cops to be measured against. He truly is one of the best of the best, worthy of your praise and admiration, not your misguided scorn.
Re: “It's Time for the Union Fighting to Stop”
I remember in my life time when Journalists had integrity and actually reported the facts without bias. That is also when they remained respected. It is clear that you don't have any idea what you are talking about. You look ridiculously ignorant. I do have to say though at least I am allowed exercise my First Amendment rights on this post. It was clear to "we the people" at the Federal Building in Oakland that we had no rights. We were INFORMED that our First Amendment Rights at the Federal Building did not apply. Oh yes, that was after they referred to us as "red shirts" but before Home Land Security showed up. Funny, I think that my name is Christina and that I am an American tax paying citizen. At what point in the game did it become acceptable in the Labor Movement in America for your "union" to become the "man." Isn't that why unions were formed in the first place? To protect the workers from the "man?" I guess that when you have enough money you can buy anything in America even your union and the entire time they are throwing their dues paying members under the bus. They only thing that I can possibly think that is lower than a union "buster" is a union that has a "price" and that has clearly been met here.
Re: “Frazier to Reexamine Police Misconduct”
For those who think polygraphs would solve anything-they're a joke.
I had to take one for a civilian emergency services position last week. I was deemed questionable to my answer for whether I had ever stolen money for work.
The kicker is I NEVER have stolen money from an employer, friend, or family member. But this DOD, former Navel Intelligence polygrpah examiner says it looks I did.
So yeah, polygraphs don;t mean much to me. I know of two situations similar to mine. Polygraphs, despite what polygraphs examiners will tell you are not fool proof and they are not science (check the U.S. Supreme Court ruling for that one because it is nearly a hundred years old).
Re: “White Punks on Warner Bros.”
So did they actually sign to Warner or just to Warner distribution or Warner publishing. There are many parts to signing onto a label. its not as simple as it seems.
Re: “Thursday Must Read: Oakland Police Consultant Calls for 911 Overhaul; William Bratton Keeps Low Profile”
@Krista: I live in Oakland. My house was robbed twice. I was told by OPD to fill out a police report online, despite my wifi-enabled devices being lost in the heist, and was informed no one would be coming out to take the fingerprints or footprints I could see on my windows. While I understand your point, clearly from my experience, Oakland does not promise an officer for every call, unless you are bleeding.